


energies

by starforged



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Spoilers, mentions of character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 17:45:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5465393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starforged/pseuds/starforged
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leia may not be a Jedi Master and maybe hatred isn't what a Jedi should feel, but she knows something about grief and anger and what to do with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	energies

Rey doesn’t know what to say. Doesn’t think there really is anything to say. She watched Han Solo murdered, and she watched it done by his own son, and she would have killed him if she had the chance. How does she say that to the one woman in the galaxy who loves those two? Because she must, overwhelmingly, love them.

Rey’s grasp of the Force is tenuous and new but she can feel Leia’s pain echoing at her. 

“I’m sorry,” she manages to choke out.  


The general gives her what is perhaps the saddest smile ever used in the history of the galaxy. It’s loss and pain and defeat tinged with the color of hope. Rey wants to know what Leia hopes for. 

“When I was around your age,” the older woman says, “I lost my parents.” A beat. “The ones who raised me. I loved my mother greatly, but I was always my father’s daughter. Always a fighter for all the things he stood for. Justice, peace, democracy. I forced my way into little plots of the rebellion and made them my own.”  


Rey listens quietly. Who is she like? Whose daughter is she? 

“They were both on Alderaan when the first Death Star was unleashed on the galaxy. I felt them die with the rest of the planet.” Leia’s words sound more distracted now, as if they are coming from far away. The older woman paces a bit, her hand pressed to her chest. “I grieved, but I didn’t - I _couldn’t_  - let it become all that I was. There were still more important things to do, and my father would have wanted me to keep working against the Empire.” She reaches out for Rey now, her small hand gripping the younger woman’s arm gently. It’s a squeeze of comfort, Rey realizes.  


There is perhaps, she thinks, no other person in this galaxy, no alien, no human, that is as strong as General Organa. 

“There is still much for us to do, Rey,” she continues in that soft, far away voice of hers. “Han would want that.”  


Rey nods, because this woman is right. But she’s not as strong. She’s not as brave. She wants to be back in the dry heat and choking air of Jakku again. She wants to kill Kylo Ren, to feel her fingers around his neck and tear through his mind with the same ease as he’s done with everyone else who crosses him. She wants him to know what the pain of losing Han is supposed to feel like. 

A hand on her cheek, warm and grounding, pulls her out of her dark thoughts. “We failed my son, but I will not let you go down the same paths.”

“I’ve never felt anger like this before,” Rey admits. “I’ve never felt this kind of hollowness.”  


Leia gives her that smile again, the one that breaks her heart. “I’m not a master like my brother, but I can tell you right now that you need to focus that kind of energy into something more useful. Come, I’m going to need to brief you on how to bring Luke home.”

If Rey can do nothing else, the least she can do is return one piece of Leia’s family to her.


End file.
